


Guardian I

by hawkstout



Series: The Demon Inside Me [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-03 07:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/695940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawkstout/pseuds/hawkstout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part I of the Demon Inside Me series: When his mother was put in jail and his father died Damian was put into the custody of his oldest adopted brother Dick Grayson, a rookie cop with the BPD. It's a mundane existence and if not wholly satisfactory  it was at least quiet. </p><p>But the Wayne family has a lot of secrets, and Damian's just beginning to learn them and of his own inner Demon that seems to be obsessed with his eldest brother. Now with fanart for chapter one!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Morning Routine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian thinks back on how he ended up living under the guardianship of Dick Grayson.

The dream was always the same. It didn’t matter how much therapeutic art he did, or how long he’d meditate to find his centre, the dream would come.

It would always come.

Damian shuddered awake and pushed it out of his mind. The blood and screams. The Bat, always coming after him. 

He was startled again when he realized that this wasn’t _his_ room. This wasn’t his Mother’s house nor his Father’s house. 

It was Dick Grayson’s bed.

_“It’s only temporary I swear.”_

The bed was too big. It could fit three people comfortably. Damian sometimes snidely wondered if Grayson ever had the occasion to test that theory. It smelled like Grayson, which wasn’t unpleasant until he smelt the musk underneath the clean smelling laundry soap. 

_“With the job, I usually stagger in and crash on the couch anyway. You have the bed.”_

Grayson was a cop. BPD. The man seemed ridiculously proud of his rookie position. It wasn't surprising, Damian reasoned, Grayson has a hero complex. He thrives on being helpful even at a cost to himself. 

_That’s why I’m here after all._

Grayson’s kindness… and didn’t that make him seethe just a bit. 

That’s why Grayson was taking the late shift, so he could be at home before Damian went to school and until after he went to bed. 

In irritation he glanced at the clock. Five A.M. Grayson would be coming in soon. He waited for the sound of the lock unlatching. He allowed himself to relax. He didn’t expect to hear Grayson’s light footsteps in the dark no matter how hard he strained his ear. Grayson was quiet and almost supernaturally light on his feet. He heard the sounds of cereal being chewed, and then the sink, the shower, and the squeak of the couch springs. 

Grayson had more energy than usual tonight.

Damian felt satisfied with that. 

He resented that he had to be here, he resented the big bed, the small apartment, the circumstances, but he didn’t resent Grayson as much as he led the young man to believe. 

He was quite satisfied with him actually, and in his needier moments, possessive of him. Grayson had given him the most stable environment he had ever lived in. 

...And Grayson was the only one he had left. There was always a quiet fear that Damian buried deep inside that one day Grayson wouldn’t walk through the door.

His mother had raised him, in that she was his guardian from his birth until the age of nine. The truth was he saw her very rarely. It only made sense, she was an important figure in his Grandfather’s cult. Damian hadn’t known what a cult was until it was smirkingly explained to him by Timothy Drake. 

Funny enough, he was raised by his mother to not believe his Grandfather… to a point.

 _“One day it will be you that will lead our people, son,”_ She would whisper in his ear.  
In her defense, she hadn’t seen his Grandfather’s attempts to sacrifice him as to gain eternal life coming. 

He hadn’t either.

Luckily the police had.

He was angry with his mother after that, because she should have seen it coming.

He didn’t visit her in jail; he didn’t even know where her jail was. He didn’t know if this was out of anger, or shame or embarrassment. She didn’t try to contact him, so he left it at that. 

Because he wasn’t raised to care. 

But then he found himself missing his mother’s neglect when it was replaced by his father’s rules.  
Bruce Wayne, a billionaire, hadn’t known he had a son until Damian was dropped on his doorstep and the DNA results came back positive. He had the public persona of a layabout drunken philanthropist, but that didn’t seem to stop him from adopting children left and right.

There was Grayson, Todd and Drake as well as a Cassandra who Damian had never met.  
But in all these cases it had been his Father’s choice. Damian was thrust upon him and their personalities clashed.

Damian had expected more neglectful indulgence from what he read in the papers, but it seemed his father wore a façade. He was actually rather grim and determined that if Damian lived under his roof he would abide by his rules. Damian came to especially resent this because his father did things under the cover of night. Sometimes he was gone for days on end. It was obvious it was something devastatingly scandalising or illegal. Damian was still expected to abide though, Pennyworth made sure of that. 

One night his father didn’t come back and his body was found three weeks later by a reporter—a friend of his father’s—and that was that for Bruce Wayne.

Damian knew his father a total of three months—in person at least. His mother would tell him stories of what a great man—a leader of men—Bruce Wayne was. He had wanted the man’s approval and acceptance into this odd family he found himself becoming a part of, but he never got it from Bruce Wayne, he wondered if he ever would have. 

So there he was, practically orphaned when Dick Grayson showed up. 

He had been on the fringes of Damian’s life with his father of course. He visited and smiled and had kind things to say, but Damian wasn’t interested other than the fact that Richard Grayson was a ruler. 

...Not in the ruling sense, rather the measuring sense. 

When Damian watched the ‘whole family’ during their once a month dinners it became obvious. Grayson would talk, trying to fill the heavy silences. Todd would make snide comments. Drake would play along with Grayson and his father would sit at the head of the table silently. It always felt like there was a conversation going on above his head that Damian wasn’t aware of, but he couldn’t decipher that, so he correctly saw Todd’s jealousy and Drake’s hero worship and how freely Grayson spoke to their father.  
Grayson somehow earned that right. While Drake took submission to a whole new level and Todd barely held his resentment, and even Damian felt himself go ridged when his father’s voice took _that_ tone, it seemed Grayson wasn’t affected. He could say anything and sometimes his father would be vehement in response, but he would never reprimand. 

Somehow, and Damian still wasn’t quite sure how since Grayson’s sunny disposition clashed the most with Bruce Wayne’s dark and brooding persona, Grayson was the favoured son. Or, if not favoured, then he was the stick by which the rest of them were measured. 

It was surprising the family fortune hadn’t been left to the rookie cop, but it wasn’t. It was left to Drake. 

And Damian? Damian was left to Grayson.

During the funeral while Todd went slightly insane and Drake refused to acknowledge Bruce Wayne’s death Grayson held them together. He reluctantly took his place as head of the family. Damian had entertained the idea that his father was in some way part of the mob and that’s what did him in.

Damian glanced at the clock. 6:30 A.M.

He wasn’t going back to sleep.

He got out of bed, got dressed and nosily made his way into the living-room/kitchen area. Grayson, one of nature’s light sleepers was instantly awake. He sat straight up and his eyes locked with Damian. He looked tense, ready for an attack, ready to defend himself. When Damian’s face registered he instantly fell back onto the couch with a small moan that might have been a greeting. Within seconds he would be lightly snoring, his instincts registering the sounds Damian made as a friendly. 

Damian probably should have wondered about that. It was a daily occurrence. Because of Grayson’s decision to take the couch he was stuck with Damian’s shuffling until 8:45 A.M. at which time Grayson would be forced to wake up again and walk Damian to school (at Grayson’s insistence, not Damian’s). Damian felt no pity for Grayson’s own foolishness. Besides, the Rookie cop would sleep all the day away for his needed six hours and would be fresh and bubbly by 3:15 P.M. when he came to pick Damian up.  
He splashed milk into the Crocky Crunch Grayson had laid out for him last night—his way of making breakfast. Damian leaned against the countertop. He chewed his cereal loudly as he studied Grayson’s bent body. He was slightly too long for the couch.

Damian put the bowl in the sink and, as quietly as he could, made his way to the couch. He let himself fall onto Grayson’s legs. Grayson jerked again, but his head didn’t lift. Damian grabbed the remote and turned on early morning cartoons.

He didn’t particularly like early morning cartoons, but he did get a nasty thrill from bugging Grayson.

“What’s on?” Grayson mumbled. His head partly emerged from his blankets. Messy black hair and not much else. 

“Spongebob,” Damian answered bluntly. He turned up the volume slightly. 

Grayson groaned burying himself under his blankets again.

“You don’t even like Spongebob you brat…” 

Damian stuck his headphones into his ears and made himself comfortable on Grayson’s legs. He watched, mildly amused, when the cartoon would sync up with the lyrics.

 _“Why-yia-ia yeaaaaah, Superman’s Dead!”_ Patrick sung with a vacant look on his face. Damian switched the song. He only had it on his Ipod to annoy Grayson. It seemed he was a Superman fan and he found the song a bit sacrilegious considering the hero had risen once again. 

As the credits began to roll Grayson began to stir. Damian popped the headphones out of his ears and crammed them into his pocket. He slid off the couch.

“’orning,” Grayson yawned. He was still in his uniform’s shirt and a pair of boxers. His longish hair was slightly mussed and patterns from the couch had imprinted itself on his left cheek. 

Damian didn’t acknowledge him other than to pass his guardian a bowl of cereal. Grayson’s smile emerged as bright as the morning sun (at least if the morning sun ever showed itself in Bludhaven). 

“Thanks.” 

His cheerfulness at the bones Damian threw him were irritating and a bit pathetic, but Damian wasn’t foolish. Grayson was a rookie cop with low pay. He was single. He lived in a one room apartment and as much as Damian found his surroundings annoying it was still better than living with Drake in a mansion. If he applied too much pressure Grayson really had no obligation to keep him. 

They weren’t even blood related. 

Once or twice Damian had tried to get a rise out of Grayson pointing out his father’s obvious favoritism towards Drake. Bruce leaving Drake with the company and basically all of the money (Until Damian found a legal way to get what was rightfully his anyway). 

Grayson wasn’t bothered at all by it.

_“He’ll do better with the company than I ever could… probably better than Bruce ever could. We don’t need to depend on money to be happy Damian.”_

Yeah… Grayson was one of those people. 

“How did you sleep?”

It was a casual question, but Damian felt the weight it actually held. 

“Fine.” He answered shortly. He forced himself not to think back to the dream. The Bat. 

Grayson looked like he was about to say something.

“I’m in no mood for a discussion about feelings Grayson. If you insist on it then I’ll leave without you.” 

Grayson took a bite of cereal instead, but he looked uncertain. 

Music therapy, art therapy, one on one counselling, group counselling and good old fashion Nyquil did nothing to stop the dreams. Grayson wouldn’t be able to help him. 

“You know the neighbourhood’s too dangerous before the sun’s up,” Grayson said moving on to safer subjects. 

He did. He had watched Grayson dispatch a thug rather effectively on his second day of school. Funny though. Grayson didn't take him down like a cop would. His fighting style looked like something out of a kung-fu movie. Grayson didn't explain and Damian never asked.

“-Tt-”

“I’m glad we had this talk,” Grayson rolled his eyes. He stood, stretching out and then headed to the master bedroom to grab clothing. 

Damian grabbed Grayson's bowl and threw it in the sink. Such a slob.


	2. Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick takes Damian to school and they meet an old friend of Dick's along the way. Damian has an appointment with the school shrink which he doesn't find very helpful.

They walked in silence together. It was cold and relatively quiet. Occasionally they would run into young thugs and addicts. Grayson would greet them. A good amount would give grunts in response. Grayson was a good cop and the neighbourhood knew it. He wasn’t about to beat their children’s heads in for a power trip and he was small fry enough that the real gangsters let him be, at least for now.

_Sometimes I think his facade of normalcy is all an act. No one’s this nice._

Damian brushed the thought away. 

Their silence was a comfortable one and he felt no need to break it and, for once, neither did Grayson. He secretly liked these moments with Grayson. He felt like they were on the same wavelength. Like, without saying anything, Grayson ‘got’ him.

Damian realized in that moment that he trusted Grayson, not just to provide food and shelter, but with his life.

_Where the hell had that come from?_

“Damian?” 

Damian realized he had suddenly stopped. Grayson was looking back at him with furrowed brow. 

He pretended to tie his shoe and felt ridiculous for doing so.

An addict took the opportunity to shuffle up while Damian ‘finished tying his shoe.’ 

“Hey Boss.”

“Roy!” And Grayson sounded excited and pleased and nervous. Damian glanced up.   
‘Roy’ was a dirty looking young man with long dirty red hair and a trucker’s hat. He itched at his arm unconsciously. The two adults were still for a moment and then Dick pulled the other man into a hug. 

The addict stiffened for a second, but then wrapped his arms around Grayson as well. 

“They’re still calling me Speedy, Robbie.”

Grayson pulled back, frowning. He still held onto the other man’s shoulders like he was afraid he might run off.

“’Robbie?’” The two looked back at Damian. He was paying more attention than before. This was different than the usual morning greetings. This was history. History that Damian never noticed Grayson not talking about. What did he really know about Grayson anyway? Adopted by his father, rookie cop, hero complex, trustworthy (for some reason), liked redheads, liked cereal, but that was it. 

“You have a kid?” Roy stiffened and Damian identified deep pain on the addict’s face. Roy pulled away. 

“...He’d have to be fourteen when I was conceived," Damian bluntly crossed his arms.

“He’s my little brother,” Grayson said quickly.

“That ain’t Timmy. Too young, way too young.” 

Damian sneered, “It’s Damian. Damian _Wayne_. Who the hell are you?” 

“Damian!” Grayson’s tone was sharp and usually Damian would brush it off, but Grayson sounded like their father for a moment and it stunned Damian for a second. 

Damian huffed at the addict turning away from his stern looking guardian.

“He’s the same age as—”

“He’s Bruce’s long lost son,” Grayson turned back to Roy and sounded a little desperate now.

“Yeah, I heard what happened to him. Sorry for your loss.” 

“I’m taking him to school.” 

“Hah…”

“Roy?”

“I gotta go Robbie.”

“Wait!” Grayson grabbed his arm. Roy tried to pull away, “Here let me give you my number. You call me okay?”

“I’m not gonna call you Dick.” He said as Grayson quickly wrote down his number and pushed it into his hand, “You got a kid.”

“I’m not his kid,” Damian grumbled. 

“If it was me, I wouldn’t want someone like me around my kid.” 

Grayson looked devastated. Roy left. 

Damian looked down at his watch. Late for school. _Sorry teacher, my guardian had an emotional reunion with a drug addict. Won’t happen again._

Grayson was frozen in place. He looked like he might start crying as he stared in the direction ‘Speedy’ had disappeared in. He looked like he wanted to run after, but then he once again looked back at Damian and his shoulders slumped.

“We’re late Grayson.”

Damian didn’t care, he didn’t ask for an explanation. Grayson chose him, which was enough for now. 

“Sorry Damian. I’ll talk to Helena—Ms. Bertinelli. 

_Stop looking so lost._

“She’ll understand.”

_Damn it, stop looking so lost._

-

“When did the dreams start Damian?”

“Pass,” Damian said sullenly. He was in a large, overstuffed chair talking about his feelings to a hippy dressed as a psychiatrist. 

“Damian, we’ve talked about this, if you don’t open up we can’t get to the route of your inner issues.”

To be fair he was stuck with this loon because school forced it upon him and Drake apparently wouldn’t shell out for a professional. 

Drake. 

Damian hadn’t gone to school, had never been in one place for long, had never even had the same staff looking after him for long periods of time so he had never found himself a proper nemesis until he had met Timothy Drake, his father’s third son. 

It seemed liked Drake represented everything he didn’t like about the ‘outside world,’ away from the cult. He was a fake and a know it all. Since the day they met they had been at odds for their father’s attention, and then for Grayson’s, but Damian had won that round. 

_“You can stay in the mansion.”_

_“I have a job Tim.”_

_Damian crept forward peeking through the door. Drake was pacing, Grayson was standing, his arms crossed defensively._

_“A job you don’t need!” Drake’s voice took on that particular whiny tone. He stopped, facing his older brother pouting, “I can take care of you.”_

_“I don’t need you to take care of me.” Grayson had a gentle look on his face._

_“I want you by my side. I know how you feel about the family business, but—”_

_“Damian needs me Tim.”_

_Drake scowled._

_“You’re choosing him over me? He’s a stranger Dick. Not only that he’s a—”_

_“Tim.”_

_“I need you Dick.”_

_“That’s the thing Timmy, you don’t.”_

_“How can you even say that?”_

_“You’ve grown so much. You’re an adult now, you don’t need me looking over your shoulder—you don’t need Bruce either, but Damian—”_

_“Has a mother, has people he can go to. He has his own family. Why is he invading ours?”_

_“You know that’s not true.”_

_“You’re really picking him over me?”_

_“I’m always gonna be here for you Tim, but we’re equals. You don’t need me to take care of you and I don’t need you to take care of me.”_

_“Is it a matter of pride?!” Drake was lashing out now. He came closer to his elder brother. Damian watched impassively as Drake got in Grayson’s face, “You can’t take Bruce’s help, you can’t take my help?”_

_“I don’t need help Tim! I can function on my own!”_

_“Bruce would want us to work together—he would want me to keep you safe while he’s gone.”_

_Grayson looked incredulous, “Tim, Bruce is dead.”_

_“He’s not!”_

_“This isn’t what he would want Tim. He wouldn’t want you to be so—”_

_“He wouldn’t want you to take on the little demon.”_

_“That’s not fair Tim.”_

_“He wouldn’t, you know how he felt about him.”_

_Damian bristled._

_“He left Damian in my custody in his will Tim. He wanted me to look after him.”_

_“What are you going to do Dick? You think you can take care of him, you? He’ll overwhelm you.”_

_“Damian’s going to live a normal life.”_

_Drake laughed bitterly, “When you fail, you know you’re always welcome here with me.”_

_“Tim—”_

_“Get out!”_

_Damian slipped into the shadows by the door. Grayson quickly left pausing for a moment in the darkened hallway, but then quickly retreated. The door was still open. Drake was tugging at his hair in frustration. Damian passed by the doorway, made sure Drake’s eyes met his and he smirked at the tortured young man. Drake ran up to him—for a moment Damian thought he was actually going to hit him—and slammed the door._

_Winning always felt good even if the prize wasn’t all that glorious._

The shrink wriggled in his chair snapping Damian’s attention back to the present. Damian had been staring at him for ten minutes. He had actually forgotten the question until “Dr. Jonathan” gave him the answer.

“When your Grandfather attacked you, that’s when your dreams started, am I right?” 

“-Tt-” He glanced at the clock. He still had ten more minutes. 

“Are you afraid of your Grandfather Damian?”

Damian snorted, “No.” 

He wasn’t. He really wasn’t—well perhaps a bit, but he grew up with the people around him believing his Grandfather was some sort of God and who wouldn’t fear God? He wasn’t about to tell Jonathan that though. 

“It’s natural to feel afraid, there’s no shame in showing it.” 

Jonathan leaned forward as if he was trying to sniff Damian’s fear. Damian felt slightly repulsed.

“I’m not afraid of in impotent old man in a jail cell,” Damian hissed crossing his arms. Jonathan seemed disappointed. 

“Your guardian…” Jonathan glanced at his notes, “Richard—” He paused and flipped back through his notes, “Richard Grayson…huh.” He glanced at Damian.

“You know him?” Damian asked. How many friends could he possibly have? 

Jonathan frowned, “No, not personally. Heard of him of course.”

“Heard of him?”

“Yes, I lived in Gotham at the time, read it in the papers. You don’t forget a story like that… Does he have acrophobia?” 

“Acro-what?”

“A fear of heights.” 

“…no.” You creepy bastard.

Why would Grayson be afraid of heights… what was in the papers about him?

“Interesting…” the doctor pulled himself back to the matter at hand, “He says you’ve been suffering nightmares since you came to your father’s house.”

“That’s really not his business.” 

“Do you get along with Richard?”

“Well enough.” 

“Do you like him?”

“Well enough.” 

“We can’t make any progress if you refuse to open up Damian.” 

“Uhuh.”

“I only want to help you Damian, you’ve been through a lot in the last year. It’s only natural to feel detached, feel frightened about the future.” 

“Can I go now?” 

The shrink looked at the clock.

“Our time is up for this week. I want you to try to do things with your guardian. You could go to the circus for instance. I hear it’s in town.” 

Jonathan had a small secret smile. 

_Creep._


	3. Remembering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian and Dick get a visitor. Dick finally tells Damian about the family business.

Grayson had dark circles under his eyes when he came to pick him up. He hadn’t slept then. Probably wandering the streets trying to find his pal Speedy. Idiot. Damian sat on a wall while Grayson spoke to his teacher about the tardiness.

Damian watched them from a distance. The sexual tension was thick between the two. They had been lovers, it was obvious. Ms. Bertinelli had a calm face, but aggressive body language. 

“Was there any trouble?” Damian asked as Grayson joined him at the wall. He hopped off falling into step with the young man. Dick shook his head. 

“No, she gave me a chewing out, but she always does—she said you’ve been having some trouble—”

“Are you afraid of heights?” Damian interrupted. It was the first thing that came to mind. Grayson frowned down at him.

“Uh, no… not at all, but Damian, she’s saying that the other kids are—”

“I want to go to the circus this weekend.” 

_No I don’t!_

“I hear it’s in town. I want you to take me if it’s not unagreeable. Haly’s Circus.” 

_It’s completely unagreeable._

“Haly’s? I’d…” Grayson looked torn.

“If you don’t want to go with me it’s fine,” Damian said quickly. Maybe he could get himself out of this.

“No! No, I’d love to go with you Damian, I… yeah, we’ll go tomorrow, how’s that?”

“Fine.” No use backing out of it now. A day at the circus, oh joy. Grayson’s reaction _was_ rather curious through. He seemed like the sort to love the circus and childish things like that. Damian looked around as if waiting for Dr. Jonathan Crane to pop out of nowhere rubbing his hands together. 

“Do you not like the circus?” Damian finally asked. He made it a point not to care about Grayson’s goings on, but sometimes curiosity did get the better of him. 

“I love the circus,” Grayson replied looking up at the smog ridden sky, “I absolutely love it, I—” he looked down again, “I guess I haven’t told you much about myself…I’ve been unfair to you.”

“How so?” 

They crossed the street. Grayson stuffed his hands in his pockets and sighed, “I’m always trying to get you to open up to me while I don’t open up to you.”

“I like it that way Grayson.” 

“You asked.” 

“-Tt-”

“I grew up in the circus, Haly’s circus. I was an acrobat.”

Damian looked at him sceptically.

“You never heard of the Flying Graysons?”

“Nope.”

“It was way before your time. I was one third of them. I can do a quadruple summersault.” 

Damian felt like his guardian was putting him on, but he looked sincere enough.

“But that was a long time ago,” Damian pointed out.  
“I’ve kept it up… but… yeah that’s why I hesitated. It’s not that I don’t like the circus. It’s just that I’ll be seeing old faces, but I should go and see them—I want to see them. I learned so much from them, they were my family. They still are.” 

“What happened to your parents Grayson?” 

_“Does he have acrophobia?”_

“They fell.”

-

When they got back home the door was slightly ajar, the lock was broken. Grayson tensed. 

“Damian, stay back,” Grayson said softly. 

“We should call the—”

Grayson slammed open the door and leaped onto the invader.

“Grayson--Dick!” Damian shouted hackles rising.

Grayson and the attacker, a man in a red hoodie and leather jacket, fought furiously. The red hood used his height and Grayson’s lack of energy to corner and pin the smaller man to the wall.

“Hey Dickie-bird,” he cooed.

“Let him go!” Damian screamed about to run in and attack. There was no need. Dick grabbed his attacker’s shoulders _flipped over him,_ and landed behind him kicking him hard in the knee.

“Fuck!” he shouted falling to the ground. Dick put a foot on his chest.

“Hi, Jay-bird.” 

“Asshole you knew it was me! Why’d you kick me?”

“Why’d you break the lock off my door?” 

The red hood fell away revealing the face of Jason Todd. Grayson removed his foot offering a hand up to his brother. Todd ignored it pulling himself up, crossing his arms. 

“What the hell!” Damian practically screamed. He was red faced and flustered. 

“Why’s the brat home so early?” Todd frowned. Damian slammed the door shut. He was twitching with anger. That bastard would break into their home and—

“School gets out at three Jason, I know you always had detention, but you’d think you’d remember that at least.” 

“So it does, I’ve been waiting here since one. You’re usually asleep, where were you?”

Grayson’s jaw dropped slightly, “I didn’t answer the door so you _broke in_?!” 

“Get Timmy to pay for the lock if you’re so put out about it, he’d jump at the chance to earn brownie points with you. Don’t bitch, you knew I was coming, you’re the one that wants to keep the kid out of it so it’s your own damn fault.” 

“I—”

“Keep me out of what?!” Damian demanded. 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it Sparky. It’s between me and big brother,” Todd smirked staring at Grayson, “Right big brother?”

“Jason, you shouldn’t—” 

Todd, obviously annoyed, grabbed Grayson, shoved him against the wall and pulled him into a hot, devastating kiss. Blood dribbled down Grayson’s chin. Todd had bit him, hard. 

Damian was livid. He felt a rush of possessiveness.

_**How dare that harlot touch what’s mine?** _

This time he did attack, hitting Jason as hard as he could in the ribs. 

“Ugh, little shit,” Todd let go of his stunned big brother. Todd’s blow was a hard one and Damian fell back hitting the couch with a thud. He groaned. 

Todd grinned. He licked Grayson’s blood off his lips, “It really didn’t have to be so hard Dickie-bird.”

“Get out!” Grayson roared, “Get out! You’re officially uninvited do you understand me?” 

“Dick—”

“OUT!!”

“Protective of your baby bird, aren’t you?” Todd frowned making his way toward the door, “Bet Timmy’s not too happy about that, hm?”

“Don’t you dare step foot into this house again.” 

Jason got to the door and turned, “I guess I’ll be making other dinner arrangements.”

“Jason!”

“I don’t mind, I can eat out.” 

Grayson slumped.

“That’s right,” Jason whispered eyes fixed on Grayson. He leaned against the doorframe smugly, “Come here Bluebird.” 

Grayson took a hesitant step forward.

“Grayson! What’s going on!?” Damian demanded. He unsteadily pulled himself up. He felt dizzy. Concerned guilty blue eyes fixed on him as if snapping out of a trance. 

“You should tell him Dick, tell him about the family business.”

“Shut up Jason, he’s not a part of that, neither am I for that matter.” 

Jason was walking toward him again licking his lips, “Bruce always let you fly away Bluebird, you know why?” He was only a few inches from being flush against Grayson’s body, “It was because,” Jason whispered, “He knew you’d always come back to him, to _us_. Now,” He raised his hand running it gently through Grayson’s black hair, “Are you going to be good?”

Damian had never seen Grayson look so angry. His face was tense, his bloodied lip pursed. Todd was eyeing that bloodied lip with a sharp grin, he leaned in.

“Get the fuck out of our house!” 

The two adults froze. Damian was holding Grayson’s service weapon pointing it right at Todd. 

“Damian, put that down!” Grayson said wide-eyed. Todd laughed. He just laughed a long loud laugh as it was the funniest thing in the world, but he stepped back from Grayson raising his hands. 

“He’s not really much of a ten-year-old, is he?” Jason said, still amused, “He’s so possessive of you already. I wonder why Bruce didn’t think of that when he left the kid to you. What am I saying? Of course he thought of it.” 

“Get out!” Damian repeated. The gun didn’t even shake in his hands as he unlatched the safety with an obvious click. He kept the barrel trained on Jason as he slowly made his way to the door. 

“Damian!”

“Little brother needs to learn how to share, but I’ll leave it to you to teach him.” 

Todd went through the door and closed it. 

_That’s right, get out! Get out of our space._

There was a tense frozen moment and then Grayson was in front of him snatching the gun from his hand turning on the safety.

“Damian! What the hell were you thinking?!”

“You’re yelling at me!? What the fuck was that about Grayson!? He kissed you! And you were expecting him! Just what the hell is going on? What did he mean about the ‘family business?’”

Grayson seemed ready to burst. He quickly stepped away from Damian in obvious distress and agitation. 

“You all have been keeping secrets from me for a long time. I want answers, now.” 

Grayson winced. He put the gun on the table and slowly turned.

“…how are your dreams?”

“This is no time to talk about—”

“It’s related.” 

“…what is this about?” 

Grayson sighed. He moved to the couch and sat down patting the space next to him. Damian didn’t hesitate. He sat down and he felt calmer to be close to his guardian. 

_**How dare Todd touch him like that?** _

Grayson moved closer, “Let me see your ribs,” Damian lifted his shirt, bruises were already forming. Grayson sighed, “You’ll be okay, just bruises. I’m sorry, I’m sorry I let him do that—”

“Less apologies, more explaining.” 

“Bruce didn’t want you to know unless it went beyond dreams…” Grayson began, “The truth is Damian Bruce… all of us… aren’t exactly what we seem to be.”

“What are you then?”

_What am I?_

“You father is—was a paranormal investigator…and hunter.” 

Damian stared. Of all the things he expected to hear this was not one of them. 

“I know, crazy right?” 

“Grayson if you’re having me on after what I’ve seen I swear to—”

“When I was a kid my parents would worry. I would talk to people that they didn’t see. I would know secrets I shouldn’t have known. My father was Romani.”

“You’re a gypsy?”

“Romani,” Grayson corrected with a little irritation at the term, “He thought I had the sight… it was more complicated than that, but he was on the right track. My Mother didn’t believe in that sort of thing, but she let him do the old spells and rituals. My new friends went away, at least for a while. Mom thought I had grown out of my imaginary friends. Dad knew better… he also must have known that it wouldn’t work for long.” Grayson looked up at the ceiling. Damian watched him.

“One night we were in Gotham. Gotham’s a black pin city—that means we pulled out all the stops. We took out the nets, we did the most daring tricks because, as my Dad always said: ‘Gotham’s hungry and you need to keep a beast well fed otherwise it’ll devour you.’ A man named Tony Zucco messed with the rigging for the trapeze because Mr. Haly refused to pay protection money. My parents fell to their death. I almost did as well, except…”

“Except?”

“One of my imaginary friends grabbed me and pulled me back before I could jump into my Mom’s waiting arms. It was screaming for me to stop. I watched them fall.”

Grayson went quiet. 

“My friend was a ghost.” 

Damian shivered.

“Bruce was in the audience. He saw the whole thing, he saw what no one else saw… well, what almost no one else saw.”

“My father could see ghosts?”

“No, not without help. He could use spells talismans, summons… that and… he just knew. That’s what made him good at his job. He was there to exorcize the ghosts of Haly’s circus, my friends and protectors. He took me in instead.” 

“But he didn’t exercise the ghosts?” Damian didn’t know if he would believe any of this if it was coming out of any other person’s mouth. 

_But I trust him._

“They were harmless… actually they were more than harmless, they were helpful. They protected the people at Haly’s. They protected me because it wasn’t that I can just see ghosts. It’s that I… I guess you could say I attract the supernatural. I’m sort of like candy to them. They really like me and sometimes that’s bad, really bad. The ghosts of Haly’s stopped the nastier things from coming my way.”

“You’re going to tell me there’s more than ghosts out there?”

“Yeah.”

“...What happened to Zucco?”

“Got arrested, serving life.” Grayson seemed satisfied with that, pained, but satisfied.

“What’s Todd?”

It didn’t take a genius to see where Grayson was going.

_I’ve accepted his ‘I see dead people’ line pretty quickly._

“I’ll get to him. For a long time I helped Bruce with his crusade, which was to wipe out every evil spirit, ghost, goblin, fairy, and demon that made its way into Gotham.” 

“You’re kidding me.”

“I wish. A lot of the time I was the bait or ended up in an old warehouse tied to a chair.”

“What happened?”

“I grew up and we clashed. I started branching out. Joined a group of other paranormalists on the side. They were… young. Rookies that were good enough to get hits, get themselves into trouble. Most of them were looking for their lost loves or excitement, or answers or protection. Bruce didn’t approve. He wanted me around full time. I left—he kicked me out… it was one of the two.

“And then came Todd?”

“Yeah, it took Bruce about two months to replace me. Jason was fourteen, a confident kid from a broken family. Another orphan. His mother was killed by a Sin Demon. Gluttony. She overdosed.”

“What was his superpower? Being a douche?”

“Hah, no. Jason didn’t have a ‘superpower’ he only wanted revenge… that’s what’s always driven Jason. Bruce took him in, trained him. Taught him the code, the ways of the Waynes.”

“So what happened with him?”

“It didn’t matter if the spirit or monster was a good one or not. He’d slaughter them either way. He got violent. I wish I had…things were tense between us for a long time. I saw him as my replacement, he saw me as competition. We only just became friends when it happened.”

“What happened?”

“There’s this…thing,” And now Grayson’s voice took on a hushed tone, “A being of pure chaos and evil. Bruce never really knew what it was. A malevolent spirit? A demon? A fey? An old god? We only knew him as the Joker.” 

Damian shivered.

“Jason’s mom made a devil’s bargain with the Joker. Came back to life. It was a set up. It took Jason and killed him. All to mess with Bruce’s head…Jason was sixteen.” 

“But that can’t be, Todd’s—”

“Yeah.”

“So he?”

“I’ll explain, but let me do this in order. Bruce was devastated with Jason’s death. He went a bit crazy, he put all of himself into the work, he didn’t…he wasn’t as smart about it. He wasn’t doing it like he taught me. Instead of hours on the internet or in the archives searching for clues he would find the dangerous ones and torture them for information. Then Tim came along.”

Damian scowled at his mention.

“Tim was the only other person at the circus that night that saw me being pulled back by the ghost.”

“Drake sees dead people too?”

“Not see like me. When I see a ghost I see a person, when I was younger it was hard for me to tell them apart from the living. It’s more like… Tim describes it as seeing wisps and shadows. He’s a medium.” 

“What’s the difference?”

“I attract the unwanted. He calls them, commands. He can summon and control. The circus was the night of his awakening and he became obsessed with the entire incident, obsessed with what I was, what the ghost was. He started calling ghosts to him, heard the stories and whispers of our world and of Bruce Wayne and his crusade. Trust me, he had to dig really deep for that. He started watching.” Dick looked up a bit embarrassed, “He started watching me.”

“He stalked you?” Damian asked scandalized. 

_**That bastard would dare to—** _

“I… it wasn’t really…yeah I guess a bit…” Grayson said awkwardly, “To be fair I have a bit of an effect on him as well.”

“That’s why he’s always drooling after you?”

“So anyway, Tim started following me around and saw Bruce and I split up. I moved out of the area so he couldn’t really follow me.”

“I bet he kept tabs on you with his ghouls.”

“So he watched Bruce, watched what a wreck he became after Jason. He came to me, told me Bruce needed a partner.”

“And you suggested the stalker become the next partner to my father?”

“Long story short?”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Hey, it worked out well for them, they balanced each other nicely and Tim’s network was handy. Bruce taught him how to control his power even more. Timmy’s really powerful.”

_Great._

“What about Todd?”

“Yeah, well… I don’t know much about it, if Bruce knew all the details he never told me, but one day a fiend shows up calling himself the Red Hood.” 

“Fiend?”

“A…I guess the closest approximation is a mix between a demon and vampire if you go by the movie standards.”

“Vampires?”

“Don’t exist, based off fiends, we don’t talk about them.”

“Okay, continue.”

“Fiends were once humans who made a devil’s bargain in their minute before death took them.” 

“Todd made a bargain?”

“That’s what I always assumed, but… Bruce thought differently. Jason doesn’t talk about it.”

“But Red Hood’s Todd?”

“Yeah. He—there were some things that happened. He was angry, angry that Bruce continued to try to seal the Joker rather than destroy it.”

“Why didn’t he? If he killed Todd he must have wanted to.”

“Bruce was afraid he might be some sort of old god tied to the city. If the Joker was destroyed the city might fall. Bruce couldn’t take the risk. It was a long time before Jason came back into the fold… before we even let him back into the fold after all the lines he crossed.”

“And where were you?”

“I was with the Titans… that’s what we called ourselves. But we got in too deep, after one tragedy too many we split up and I went solo. I kind of bounced between being on my own and joining other groups. I made up with Bruce and we would work together on occasion. 

“But you gave it up.”

“I’m too much of a risk to work with anyone other than Bruce and I couldn’t work with Bruce anymore fulltime. We would drive each other crazy. Then a demon, Desmond became—he— he did things that—let’s just leave it at I realized I was too much of a liability to be involved in supernatural affairs.”

“So if Todd didn’t make a bargain how is he alive?”

“Bruce never told me his theory, but we do know that, eventually, your mother picked him up.”

Damian felt a knot form in his stomach.

“My… my mother?”

“Your mother… is… Damian, you need to understand that I was going to tell you, explain it all when you were older or if the dreams became more than dreams or if you hit puberty and started feeling effects of—”

“Grayson!”

“She’s a demon,” Grayson looked away. 

Damian was shaking now.

“What?!” 

“Your Grandfather is an arch-demon. Scary, powerful, Talia is his daughter. Ra’s al Ghul was always interested in Bruce, what he represented, the order he tried to bring to Gotham. He ordered his daughter to—and to be fair I believe she actually has some twisted feelings for Bruce so it wasn’t all just games and orders, but she got—”

“Pregnant with me.” 

“We didn’t know until you arrived on Bruce’s doorstep.” 

Damian was silent, staring at nothing.

_Well that explains the panic when I told them who my mother was._

“My understanding is that she made Jason what he is. A fiend, but one without a contract. One that still has a soul. We don’t really understand how she did it, but it has happened befo—”

“I don’t really care about Todd right now.”

“Yeah…”

“I’m a half demon?”

“Not… exactly as far as Bruce was concerned after a lot of tests, he concluded you to be fully human. The only thing supernatural about you is the dreams.” 

This was all insane.

“Damian, I’m—how are you doing?”

“He had no right keeping this from me,” Damian’s blue eyes narrowed on Grayson, “Neither did you.”

Grayson nodded looking away. He accepted the boy’s anger, “I wanted you to have a normal life. I didn’t want you to feel like—”

“A pawn.” 

“Damian, you’re not.”

“That was what I was create for though, wasn’t it? Something to be used against my father?”

“We don’t know that.” 

“I know that.” 

He felt it in him now. The flow of power, the rising darkness. It made his fingertips tingle. He smiled then rubbing them together and black electricity sparked.

Grayson almost jumped off the couch he was so startled.

“Damian?”

“I remember now.” He slowly turned his head to Grayson and then crawled toward the young man. Grayson looked terrified, “You reminded me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much dialogue... hah cliff hanger. Er, tell me what you guys think. What Jason and Dick are (and Damian...And Tim) get explained more in the next few chapters. 
> 
> I imagine Jason only knocked once and decided that breaking down the door was the best idea...


	4. Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Damian meets his inner Demon.

“I remember now.” He slowly turned his head to Grayson and then crawled toward the young man. Grayson looked terrified, “You reminded me.” 

**Worshipers not a cult, these were worshipers of us.**

“Who are you--?”

“Shh.”

**This one would make a pretty worshiper…**

Damian climbed on to Grayson putting a finger to his lips, “My turn to tell stories now, Dick.” Grayson shivered. Damian never called him by his first name. He tried to get up, but suddenly Damian was strong and easily held him down.

_It’s not me! It’s not! Grayson! Dick!!!_

“Mother taught me many things, but she couldn’t teach me about humanity of which I was a part of and the only man she trusted with my education would never accept a demon boy. She blocked my memories and my nature to let my human half have a go at it. I was taken to my father and all I had were dreams as memories. The fire, the blood, the sacrifices of our worshipers." Damian gave a chilling smile. He rubbed his face against Grayson’s cheek like a cat marking its territory. He started sniffing him.

“Let go!”

**Smells nice…** _Stop it! Stop it!!_

“She wants me to conquer the world—”

And then Damian was suddenly on the other side of the couch leaning back casually, “But I’ve no interest in such a silly thing, and besides, her plan worked too well.” “It—I don’t—” Grayson was stunned. He tried to get up, but Damian idly raised a hand and an invisible force pushed him back holding him in place. 

“Father wasn’t very good at teaching me about humanity, but you’ve done a good job, Dick. The human part of me has accepted you as his guardian and so I must do so as well.”

“You aren’t… you aren’t Damian!”

“I am… but not exactly the one you’ve come to know. He’ll come back in a moment. I just thought I’d let you know I’m here, deep inside. I want to know if your goodness will change the path he was meant to walk down. If your kind soul will be enough. If Bruce Wayne’s best and brightest can do something to stop me.” Damian--The Demon smirked, “You’ve tied us to humanity Richard, you’ve tied us to _you_. You shall be _his_ big brother in victory, or—” and in the blink of an eye the demon was standing before him running a hand down his cheek, “You shall be my lover in defeat.”

“You’re _he's_ a ch—”

“I’m an old soul, Beloved.”

Damian blinked and it seemed like the pressure in the room changed and—

“You’re back to normal,” Grayson could instantly tell. He was shaking, not terrified for himself, but for Damian. He grabbed the boy pulling him into a hug. It was the first time Damian didn’t struggle away from affection. He knew, he saw, he was there for the whole thing, all of what the demon said, had the demon’s memories that had been taken away from him, but they didn’t feel like _his_ memories, they felt like someone else’s.

He inhaled and Grayson’s scent hit him pleasantly. 

_**Ours, ours, ours.**_  
 _Shut up._  
 **You feel it too. Whether we join soul for your cause or for mine he will be ours.**

“He took control, I couldn’t stop him. I was there, but I couldn’t make him stop,” Damian rambled. 

“Are you okay?” Grayson asked.

“Not really.”

“I’m sorry, I should have told you.” 

**And if he had before a bond was made with him we would have feasted on his entrails and would have joined in one soul toward my purpose… I’m not mad though, he’s awfully pretty.** Grayson’s blue eyes looked at him worriedly.

“This was what father was afraid of wasn’t it—? This is why he placed me with you!” He didn’t think he could feel more of a distance and betrayal from his father, but here it was. “He wanted me to make a connection with you, a person that supernatural beings find…pleasant.”

Todd’s words echoed in his head: _“He’s so possessive of you already. I wonder why Bruce didn’t think of that when he left the kid to you. What am I saying? Of course he thought of it.”_ “Father planned for this eventuality.”

Grayson sighed still clinging on to the boy, “That… sounds like him.” 

Damian pulled away putting distance between himself and his guardian. Grayson looked tired, earth shatteringly tired. He hadn’t slept, he had met that Speedy character, he had to deal with Todd and now it turned out Damian’s half demon self was a viable threat. 

“You slay demons.”

“One, no I don’t, I don’t do that anymore and two I wouldn’t even if I did because you’re not a demon you’re my little brother.” Grayson leaned forward intense and sincere, “Something is locking the demon part of your… soul away. We can reinforce it, make sure it can’t take control from you.” The demon rippled in annoyance at the back of Damian’s head.

**He’s sexy when he takes control, am I right?**  
 _No he’s not! He’s a buffoon with a heroic streak!_  
 **Give it a few years, you’ll see what I do, trust me.**  
 _Shut up!_  
 **Aren’t you going to tell him about the little demon on your shoulder?**  
 _Fuck off!!_

“Damian?”

“Grayson, what can you do? You’re a rookie cop that can see ghosts and attract monsters. You’re going to stop something that can cause an apocalypse? You?”

“Sure,” Grayson grinned, “Why not? I mean I’ll need your help, but…” 

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah.”

“We’re going to Gotham aren’t we?”

“Tonight.”

“You haven’t slept.”

“I’m used to that.” Grayson got up with a bit more energy and grabbed a bag filling it with the knick knacks Damian had always sneered at.

“They’re protection wards, memorise this one,” He tossed one to Damian. It made his hand tingle unpleasantly. It was the symbol of a bat. 

The Bat, always chasing him—

“Why could Todd get in?”

“The wards work in a number of ways. First it blocks out people and creatures with intent to harm or are filled with rage. They find it hard to find the place and if they do it hurts to enter. Secondly I can invite people in. Jason’s constant wrath makes it prudent to extend the invitation.” 

“That’s why you ‘uninvited’ him?”

“He hit you,” Grayson frowned, “He’s not allowed to do that.” 

**Aww isn’t that sweet? He’s defensive of us. Do you think we should mention as soon as I take over I plan to pull Jason’s heart out through his mouth and offer it to our Beloved as a gift?**

“What about your job?” Damian asked when he watched Grayson pass over his service weapon in favour of a box which seemed to be filled with religious symbols Judeo-Christian and otherwise. 

“Job? Oh,” Grayson finally stopped moving, “Right…” he seemed pained for a moment, “Why don’t you pack up some clothes and I’ll call them—and give Timmy a heads up that we’re coming.”

“We’re staying with Drake?”

“We need to consult him.” 

“You think he’ll help?”

Grayson didn’t even hesitate, “Tim’s our brother Damian, we might be having a few issues right now, but he would never abandon us.”

_Speak for yourself._  
 **Oh, Drake, he definitely doesn’t want to know what we’ll do to him.**  
 _Shut up._  
 **Come on, you’d kind of like the idea of this one.**

“Now pack a bag,” Grayson urged moving to the telephone. 

_Who still has a land line?_  
 **Dick does and you find it charming.**  
 _Fuck off._  
 **Or maybe that’s just me? Same difference.**

Damian went to the master bedroom and packed a bag. He heard Grayson’s quiet murmur about a family emergency and other details that weren’t important. It gave Damian a moment to stop, to think.

He was a demon or… he was a half demon and the other half of his soul wanted to take over his body and fuck his older brother. 

**Life can be pretty messed up I’ll grant you. And I don’t just want to fuck him. I want to _keep_ him. Candy was a good description; you just want to lick him all over—**  
 _You’re disgusting!_  
 **Ugh, human children have no taste.**  
 _Who are you?_  
 ** _We_ are an experiment created by mother. She’s into those sorts of things you know. You’re the perfectly human half, the DNA that comes from Brucie and the body Mommy likes to possess. You’re the perfect human soul that came out of that bonding. Me? I’m more complicated. Demons are … born differently from humans we come out whole, no need to grow up. I was Mommy’s offspring that she had the same time as you were conceived. We’re technically the same person with a fractured soul. You have an advantage though because as the human half you have a deeper tie to the body. Even though I remember now I can’t retake control now that our Mother’s not around. Make sense?**  
 _Not really._  
 **I’m sure our Beloved will explain it to you with little words when he and the Usurper attempt to piece together what we are.**  
 _Don’t call him that._  
 **What? Usurper? That’s what he is. He steals Brucie’s affections, he steals our human wealth, he attempts to steal our Beloved, and he will probably try to steal our dark powers.**  
 _No, I meant…_  
 **Does your own lust make you uncomfortable?**  
 _I’m only eleven I don’t have any interest in that!_  
 **You should pack a bag or _Beloved_ will be worried.**

Damian continued stuffing random things into his bag. He heard Grayson’s low murmur on the phone and it comforted him until he realized who he was talking to.

“No Tim I can’t tell you why we’re coming… … … because you might freak out and I need you calm right now … … … yes it is about Damian, but… … … no I’m fine, nothing’s happened to me why would you think th--… … … you spoke with Jason? You speak with Jason? I didn’t know, I’m glad you two are--… … … you can call it mutually beneficial if you like it’s just nice that you two are finding some common grou--… … … You told him what—!? Fuck.” 

Damian entered the living-room in time for the loud banging and shouting at the front door.

“OPEN UP NOW!! DICK!! OPEN NOW!!! LIFT THE WARDS!!!” 

Grayson opened the front door. He was still holding the phone to his ear. Todd stood in the doorway looking ready to rip him apart.

“We’re talking about this when we get to Gotham,” Dick said before hanging up the phone and letting it drop. 

“Invite me in Dickie.” 

“No,” Dick said taken aback, “Why are you—”

“Invite me in so I can get rid of that abomination,” He said pointing at Damian. Dick turned.

“Damian you should—”

**Tear out the thug’s throat and watch him bleed out? I agree, Beloved.**

“No more sheltering me Grayson,” He stepped further into the living-room. 

“That thing just revealed to you all you need to know so I want you to move to one side and say I can come in. Has he bewitched you? Are you bewitched?”

“I’m not bewitched!”

“Prove it!”

“Do I look bewitched to you?”

“Not really, no, you’re a bit too animated... plus usually bewitched people are wrapped around their bewitchers all creepy and clingy…” 

“How do you even know that Damian awoke? It doesn’t matter, Jason he’s a human.”

“He’s a monster.”

“You would know,” Damian crossed his arms.

**Zing!**

“You little—”

“YOU ARE NOT TOUCHING DAMIAN JASON, GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD AND INSTEAD OF BEING A TOOL TRY TO ACT LIKE A BROTHER AND HELP US!” 

Todd and Damian froze and their older brother’s raised voice and tone. He looked about at his breaking point one hand rubbing his tired face.

“Dick, he’s Talia al Ghul’s child and he’s awakened.”

“He hasn’t.”

“You can’t know that! Demons play these games all the time. They lull you into a false sense of security and then they rip out your tongue.” 

**I want to rip out _his_ tongue.**

“You don’t think I don’t know how Demons work Jason?” Grayson said ice cold. Jason had apparently crossed some line.

“I… yeah, but…”

“I can _tell_ Jason. I can see his visage.” 

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So he’s not…?”

“Not right now. If you killed him right now you’d be killing a human.” 

Todd slumped, “This sucks.”

“No one knows this more than me,” Grayson replied, “Come in.” “What are you doing? He was just threatening to kill me!” Damian yelled stepping back. Todd walked in casually. He held up his hand. It looked like it had been scorched. Second degree burns ran along it.

“Cool your tits baby bird, I can’t touch the innocent. Just slapping you around gave me this.” 

**Good news for us, you’re useful after all other me.**

“But you... you were touching Grayson,” Damian said awkwardly the tips of his ears going red. Todd burst out laughing, Grayson had gone slightly pink.

“He means virgins Damian,” Grayson explained. Todd was still laughing.

“Dickie a virgin, that’s a good one.” 

**It just means we’ll have to hunt his other lovers down and dispose of them. Might be fun.**

“Why such an arbitrary rule?” Damian asked stepping closer to Grayson, trying to ignore the Demon in his head.

“Welcome to our world,” Todd said his giggles subsiding. He flung himself on the couch as if he owned the place, “Dick, come ‘ere.” He held out his arms. Grayson crossed his in annoyance. 

“Are you…” Damian had gone even more red, “Lovers?”

“Yes,” Jason answered.

**I’m really going to enjoy turning Jason inside out.**

“No!” Dick said at the same time glaring at his younger brother. 

“Would you rather say that you’re my cute little Big Mac and fries Dickie-bird?”

“Honestly?”

“Romance is dead,” Jason flung his arms up, “Dick’s my food, love has nothing to do with it.” 

**You’ll be my food you little prick if you continue to stare at our Beloved like—**

“His food?!” Damian asked in outrage.

“Yeah,” Grayson nodded, “Fiends live off—”

“Blood,” Todd licked his lips.

“Adrenalin,” Grayson corrected in annoyance, “That’s why he kissed me, that’s why he hit you.”

“Makes Dickie taste all the sweeter getting him riled up, I didn’t know he’d bitch out about it,” Jason grumbled.

“That’s also why he’s constantly an aggressive jerk,” Dick finished, “You gonna help?”

“You gonna feed me?”

“Yeah.”

“Fine.”

“I’m… not okay with this,” Damian finally said. The adults glanced at him.

**_We can’t have him touching what’s ours!_** Grayson approached him. He knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. After a moment’s hesitation Damian threw it off.

“This world has a lot of different sort of people in it Damian.”

“My people.”

“Supernatural and normal alike,” Grayson said, “Jason would never hurt me and he can’t hurt you otherwise I wouldn’t let him near us.” 

“I don’t like how he treats you,” Damian said very quietly, not looking into his older brother’s eyes.

“He’s actually a nice guy underneath it all.”

“He’s a douche.” 

“Damian,” Grayson scolded. 

**We cannot let this fiend interfere with us!**  
 _Can he interfere with us?_  
 **Well… he might slow us down…**

“Fine, Todd can come.”

**Traitor!**  
 _If it means having someone between you and Grayson I’ll put up with Todd’s presence._  
 **Oh… you’re good.**

“Thanks your majesty,” Jason waved from the couch, “Now I want more than a fucking snack before we go see the Ice Queen. So, do you want me to get you off, have a fight or do some push-ups?” 

-

Grayson opted for the push-ups. Jason complained the whole time repeating over and over that it was faster to do it the other ways, especially considering the shape Grayson was in and how much better ‘sexy adrenaline’ tastes. They got in to Todd’s car (“We are not driving your pathetic excuse for a vehicle Dick”). It was a flashy red sports car.

(“Is it actually yours?”  
“It is now.”)

Todd drove, Grayson took shotgun and quickly fell asleep, probably tired from the lack of sleep and minor blood loss. 

“Idiot,” Todd and Damian grumbled at the same time. A stifling tension overcame the car that was only interrupted by Grayson’s soft snoring. 

“Fucking ghosts! Fuck off, he doesn’t want to come out and play!” Damian looked around, but he couldn’t see anything. 

“There’re ghosts here?”

**They’re all around us. They’re singing him lullabies. Listen.**

For a moment Damian could hear a spine tingling harmony, but it quickly faded. “Yeah,” Jason answered after a moment’s pause, “Lots of accidents on this stretch of highway. The amulets that you stuffed in your bags don’t work on most of them because Dick refuses to get proper wards that protect him from _all_ ghosts, not just the nasty ones.”

“Why doesn’t he?”

Todd took on an air of extreme annoyance towards their older brother, “He _likes_ them.” 

**Aww.**

“Idiot,” They both grumbled again. 

After a short pause it was Damian who broke the silence.

“He said you couldn’t see them.”

“That was when I was human. I still don’t see them like _he_ does. I see … blobs, basically essences, He sees people, animals, monsters, whatever they shaped themselves into in death. Dick’s completely human, but he has this—”

“Energy.”

“So you do feel it.”

“Sometimes,” Damian admitted, “It’s… pleasant.” 

“Bruce worried about it a lot. He pretended not to, but you could see it on his face every time Dick smiled at someone who wasn’t there. Dick’s a rare one, it puts him in a lot of danger.”

“But Drake can talk to ghosts, can’t he see them too?”

“Tim sees their shadows, not them. He doesn’t really talk to them either… more like command them to do his bidding, I mean he’s pretty polite about it, but the ghosts aren’t interested in holding a conversation with him, trust me, he’s tried. Dick sees them as actual people. It’s hard for us to relate to his way of thinking when all I see are oozy blobs and all Tim sees are wispy submissive shadows.”

“So you’ve never come across someone that can ‘see’ in such detail.”

“It’s not a matter of detail; it’s a matter of perception. Lots of people can ‘see’ ghosts in one way or another. Dick interacts with them. They’re solid to him. They can touch him and he can feel it. That and monsters think he’s the new beanie baby isn’t encouraging either, but we’ve…met a few others like Dick… it’s just that…most of the time they’ve gone insane by the time we found them. Mental institutions, that’s only very few though. Bruce was pretty certain the rest usually wind up dead. Dick… we never told him about the live ones, there was no point, it would only depress him and it wasn’t his future. His Dad protected him when he was a kid and then Bruce when he got older. He learned how to protect himself and he learned he wasn’t crazy when he sees people that aren’t there.”

“So he doesn’t know?” Damian stared at the back of Grayson’s head, his guardian murmured something in his sleep, “Doesn’t suspect there are others like him?”

“Daddy-Bats was pretty secretive, but I’m sure Dick suspects, maybe even encountered a few on his own.”

“Bats?” Damian asked. He wanted to change the subject.

**Our Beloved has us, he isn’t lonely.**

“Oh, you don’t know about the family. When you walk around in a world of witches, goblins and fairies the last thing you want to do is give them your true name. You take on a spirit name.”

“So father’s was…?”

“Bat. We called him Batman, everyone called him Batman, wore a scary mask so no one would know he’s famous Bruce Wayne.” 

“What about Grayson?”

“He went by Robin.”

_“Hi Robbie.”_

“I know, cute right?” Damian had the feeling Jason was rolling his eyes, “When I rolled with Bruce before my untimely death I went by Robin as well, so did Tim. Bruce always wanted to be the bogyman the monsters hid under the bed because of, and he did, he scared the crap out of them. He liked being this urban legend to monsters and freaks. Having the same kid at his side I guess added to the mystique. I changed my name when I got back. It didn’t take long for Tim to change his either.”

“What do you go by now?”

“Red Hood.”

“…sounds dumb.”

“There’s more mysticism to it than you know, kid.” 

“What about Drake?”

“Red Robin.”

“…really?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So Grayson goes by Robin again?”

“No, he goes by Nightwing now when he has to deal with our world.”

It wasn’t a bad name, but it sounded like Grayson was trying to be cool for the sake of being cool.

“Nightwing?”

“Legend from a Golem friend of the family. There is meaning in our spirit names… no matter how dumb some of them are.” 

“Uhuh.”

“Ugh!” Todd swatted at the space in front of him again, “If you have to group around him don’t group around him in front of me, I’m trying to drive here!” 

“Do they understand you? Can you understand them?”

“They hear me, but I can’t hear to them. Basically they’re like slugs. Oozy and in the way.” 

“I’ve never heard Grayson talk to ghosts.”

“He was determined to keep you on the normal side of things. It wouldn’t be hard to ignore them, he’s trained himself to do it all his life in public. He has a mole though.”

“A mole?”

“Yeah, Timbo’s got an inside man keeping an eye on him. That’s why I showed up at the apartment. Tim called, said you awakened, said Dick was in trouble.”

“He’s been _watching_ us?!” 

He felt the Demon’s hackles rise the same time as his own. 

“Yep.”

“He’s still a stalker!?”

“Yeeeep.”

Damian thought about it. Though back to the awkward dinners and Todd’s snide comments, his forcing Grayson into arguments. He never seemed to… like Grayson that much.

“…you’ve been stalking us too.”

“Hey, it’s not stalking if he knows I’m around. You’re Talia al Ghul’s kid. I may have some issues with the Bat-family and Dickie-bird, but I have even more issues with her and if her spawn tries to touch my older brother I’ll kill it. No offence.”

**He can try.**

“None taken.” 

They fell back into silence as the lights of Gotham began to shine in the distance. Damian felt himself drifting off. Faintly he was sure he heard the ghostly lullabies easing him into sweet dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you may wonder why Damian hasn't told anyone the Demon is talking to them. The answer is drama (which is funny because I'm always like TELL THEM YOU IDIOT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE), but Damian's reasons are he wants to figure out this stuff for himself a bit and Jason showed up and he doesn't trust Jason and he's still probably pissed at Dick for not telling him he's a freaking demon. (THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT DAMN IT) 
> 
> ...
> 
> More about the Demon next chapter. 
> 
> Oh and before anyone feels squicky the Demon manifests itself as a full grown adult (which is one reason Dick knew it wasn't Damian) it wasn't described because usually everything's in kind of Damian's point of view so to him it just felt like his body was doing things without permission. This I believe gets described in the next chapter. 
> 
> ... I just thought I'd mention it.
> 
> So uh... tell me what you think I guess.


	5. Bargains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers are finally together. Damian has a disturbing dream. A bargain is made.

_There was so much blood._

_The worshipers danced in a frenzy even as they cut each other. They danced for the Demon’s Head. They danced for their God._

_Damian stood in the middle of them, he felt sick. He felt elated. His Grandfather’s eyes were upon him. He was strong, he was weakened._

_“It’s great, isn’t it?” He felt a twist of shock as a man who looked exactly like him appeared before him. It was Damian, definitely Damian only older. He looked to be in his late twenties, sparks of black energy danced around him and instead of blue eyes, his were black._

_It was the demon half of him. He stepped back._

_“Nah, don’t worry kid, I won’t hurt you, you’re me. We need each other whether you like it or not.” The other Damian waved away his worries, “Just watch, listen, doesn’t it feel good? Natural?”_

_It did in a way, part of him felt like it was right, the other half knew it wasn’t._

_“No,” Damian decided._

_“Spoil sport. Oh, look, it’s the main event.”_

_The music seemed to fade and suddenly Damian was on the throne that his Grandfather had been on. The worshipers were chanting quietly and a naked young man was brought into the cave where the dark ceremony took place. He struggled against them, but there were too many to fight off. They pinned him and hauled him onto the altar._

_Grayson, it was—_

_He tried to get up, but couldn’t move from the throne. The Demon smirked at him._

_“Look at our pretty offering Damian.” The Demon walked down the short staircase towards the altar softly humming the tune that the ghosts had been singing. The worshipers tied Grayson securely spread eagle. He squirmed, but he didn’t talk. The Demon reached out stroking Grayson’s cheek. In a sudden movement he forced his hand over his captive’s mouth._

_“Stop! Don’t hurt him! Let him go! Dick!!”_

_“Swallow,” The Demon demanded, “Swallow, Beloved.” He held his hands over Grayson’s mouth and nose. Grayson finally fell back and the demon let go. Grayson gasped for breath._

_“There’s a good pet, there’s a pretty bird,” the Demon petted his damp hair lovingly. He glanced back at Damian, “I’m only claiming what’s ours.”_

_Grayson whimpered, but didn’t resist the Demon’s touches._

_**He’s drugged him, he’s going to—to—I don’t want to see this, I don’t want to—** _

_Light suddenly spilled out into the cave making the worshipers and the Demon scream. Silhouetted in the light was—_

_The Bat, it was the Bat! No!_

And Damian woke up to light shaking.

“Hey, we’re here.” 

Grayson. Grayson who looked well rested, but a bit stiff from his sleep in the car. They were parked out in front of Wayne Manor. It was still dark, but Damian felt safe, like all of it had been a bad dream. Like Grayson and he were visiting Drake for a social call, not because he was a half-demon and his father—

“You okay? The dreams?”

“Still don’t want to talk about my feelings Grayson.”

Grayson smiled as if he was relieved that Damian was back to his old acerbic self. 

“Can we move our asses? I’ve been driving for five goddamn hours,” Todd said moving toward the front door to ring the bell. Grayson and Damian joined him and the door opened right away. It wasn’t Alfred like they had expected, it was Drake. Before any words could be said the nineteen-year-old flung himself at Grayson holding on to him tightly.

“You _idiot._ ”

“Why does everyone call me that?” Grayson wheezed from the tightness of Drake’s arms around him. He hugged his little brother back reassuringly. 

“Cause you are,” Todd replied helpfully. 

Damian felt a rush of his own possessiveness. He was expecting a snide or threatening comment from the Demon, but none came. Maybe he was sleeping… maybe he was still in that dream having his way with—

“Let’s go inside, we have a lot to talk about,” Grayson suggested. 

“Fucking finally,” Jason muttered. He gave a nod to Drake and Drake nodded back. Drake completely ignored Damian.

“Where’s Alfred?” Grayson asked as they walked through the long halls of Wayne Manor. Always too big, always too dark. 

“Fact finding mission,” Drake answered shortly. It seemed despite his burst of emotion he was still angry at Dick for spurning him. 

Every once-in-a-while Damian would notice Grayson smile at nothing or slightly incline his head. 

_He did that at their home as well, but I never noticed. I thought it was just a thing he did. I didn’t think it was strange. Why didn't I think it was strange?_

“You’ve made things harder than they needed to be Dick,” Drake said, it sounded like he was working his way up to a rant, “It would have been easier if you stayed here. Maybe Bruce was confident he could protect you a city away, but he was Batman. You’re not Batman and I’m not Batman. You’re safer here, and if you insisted on keeping _him_ we could have monitored him watched for warning signs, changes. We could have even prepared and trained him, but you wanted—I don’t even know what you wanted anymore. To keep up with the selfish notion that you don’t belong with me? With us?”

“You know I don’t think that Tim.”

“You certainly have acted that way,” Tim hissed bitterly. He grabbed the doorknobs and threw open the door.   
Grayson gasped in awe, “Woah.”

It was actually rather underwhelming. It was a dark room with a round table low to the ground. There were a few odd pictures and symbols carved into the wall, but otherwise it was pretty plan. 

“Ew.” Todd wrinkled his nose. 

“I’m missing something aren’t I?” Damian said in aggravation.

“Wait stop!” Grayson cried stepping back throwing his hands over his face. For a moment he was lifted into the air.

“PUT HIM DOWN!” Drake roared. Grayson fell back on his feet. Drake looked down at Damian in irritation.

“You can’t see them?”

“No! And don’t you look down your nose at me Drake!” 

Drake snapped his fingers, “Reveal!” 

People everywhere—no, not just people. Animals, monsters and combinations of all three. There were at least twenty of them crammed in the small room. Most of them were shoving each other trying to get as close to Grayson as possible. Damian grabbed Grayson’s wrist out of instinct trying to shove his guardian behind him. The ghosts only moved through him. The closest one started gently petting Grayson’s head like he were a little boy. It had a gentle grin on its monstrous face. Another took Grayson’s free hand and started swinging it back and forth. 

“Hello,” Grayson said, “I’m sorry, you all surprised me.” The ghosts’ mouths all seemed to move at once, but it was like someone hit the mute button. Damian couldn’t hear them. 

“Manners,” Drake said lightly. The ghosts seemed to be grumbling silently and they moved back, took their places around the wall of the room. They flickered every now and then. 

“How many have you summoned here?” Grayson asked looking around the room, “How many have you made solid? The amount of energy the amount of talismans you would have to manifest them so completely—”

“More than this.” Drake snapped and the ghosts disappeared again—not to Grayson who was still looking around the room at them curiously.

“This is dangerous Tim, if you’re doing this all by yourself it’s—”

“I have other friends Dick. They’re helping me, but forget about it for now, these ghosts have nothing to do with our current problem. Take a seat.” 

"You said that most people can't see Ghosts like Grayson can," Damian said to Jason accusingly. 

"That's not how he sees them," Drake said dourly, "You only saw their physical features. Dick can see them, hear them, smell them, touch them, probably taste them."

"Uh, yeah," Dick confirmed.

"They're solid to him," Drake took a seat at the largest chair. In the space were cards and nick-knacks like the ones Grayson had at home. "And ghosts don't actually manifest this clearly unless you have countless spells and talismans that keep them so solid. Without them you'd see orbs of light if you were lucky, even with the power of a medium they are nothing but shadows. The amount of power in this room alone is comparison to the amount of energy in a small sun." 

“You’re still looking for Daddy huh?” Jason asked mockingly. He threw himself into one of the chairs leaning back. He idly waved his hand, probably at a ghost that got too close. Grayson looked sad by that news and he took a seat as well. Damian followed. He wished he could still see the ghosts so he knew if they were creeping upon them, but he couldn’t. 

“Bruce would have contacted me if he was dead, hell, he would have contacted Dick,” Tim said with certainty, “The body wasn’t Bruce’s.” 

“He could have passed on Tim,” Dick pointed out gently. 

“He always did like your optimism Bluebird.” Jason rolled his eyes, “Maybe Bats has his own agenda as a vengeful spirit and can’t come to the phone right now. Bruce was good but facts are facts. We all saw the body.” 

“This isn’t what you came here to talk about,” Drake grumbled, “We’re here to talk about him.” He pointed at Damian with some disgust. 

“I have a name.” 

“Tell me, what happened Dick?” Drake said.

“You don’t already know? Didn’t your spy give you enough detail?” Damian asked sharply. There was an awkward pause. Grayson looked stunned and Drake looked guilty and Todd looked like he wished his life wasn’t a supernatural soap opera. 

“You had a… that's why you were panicking on the phone. That’s how Jason knew the details. That’s how you knew to call him.”

“You want your space, fine, but I wasn’t going to leave you with no protection with the son of Talia al Ghul, can you accept that?”

“I can accept why you felt you had to do it.”

“Moving on?” Todd suggested.

“Jason and I had a fight and he said too much.”

“You weren’t home at the designated time.” 

“I was--!” Grayson looked furious, but cut himself off, “Roy showed up.”

“Who?” Drake and Todd asked.

“Speedy.”

“Ohhhh, Hah, that’s why you were so pissy.” 

“He’s well?” Tim raised his eyebrow. 

“No. I went looking for him all day. I couldn’t find him and I had to pick up Damian from school. Jason, being the adrenaline junkie he is got upset that he had to wait for his weekly snack and broke into the house. I took issue with this.”

“Understandable,” Drake nodded.

“Hypocrite. Who’s side are you on?” Todd complained. 

“He kissed me in front of Damian which set off a bunch of questions that I couldn’t lie about. I promised I’d never do that to him.”

“You never told me any of this before!” Damian protested, “Not even an inkling of this family’s true nature!”

“You never actually asked.”

“Lying by omission is still lying Grayson.”

“Continue,” Drake command he looked like he had a headache. Every so often he sent Todd a death glare Todd brushed it off like he was another one of the ghosts. 

“When I told him a bit about Bruce and Talia he…changed.” 

“In what way?”

“He became an adult, he looked my age, maybe a bit older. He had an aura of dark energy, his eyes went black.”

Damian was startled by the description that perfectly matched his dream. 

“I changed physically?” Damian asked determined not to let his emotions overrun him. Grayson nodded and then frowned, “You might not have, I could have just been seeing your aura… I was kind of panicked at the time.” 

“What did the Demon say Dick?”

Grayson closed his eyes for a moment, “He… told me Talia raised him, the Demon half, but she wanted Damian’s human side to be nurtured too, she wanted him to learn about humanity.”

“So that together as one bound soul we could conquer it,” Damian said quietly, bitterly.

“She wants him to take over the world?” Todd asked skeptically. Drake didn’t look so skeptic.

“The grandson of an arch-demon and the greatest paranormalist of the century? Yeah Jason, I think he could cause some problems for us.” Drake was studying Damian again with suspicious eyes.

“He doesn’t want the world,” Grayson said quickly, “Said it was silly.” 

“Then what does he want?” Todd asked, “Did he say?”

“No.” Grayson lied. 

_He wanted you._

Damian was glad Grayson was willing to skip that detail with the way Drake was already looking at him, like a rat that needed extermination. 

“Then he went back to normal, completely normal, completely human,” Dick said.

“Jason, touch him.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No?”

“I’m not touching him,” Jason crossed his arms, “He smells virginal and pure to me. I don’t want another fucking burn that won't heal because of stupid 'magic' or whatever.” 

Drake rolled his eyes. He finally looked at Damian, “Well? Anything to say for yourself?”

“Only that you’re a prick,” Damian replied. He poked Jason’s exposed wrist deftly before the fiend knew what he was doing.

“Ow! Son of a bitch!” 

“Literally,” Tim agreed. He took Todd's hand and examined the burn, “Good.”

“Fuck off Tim,” Jason muttered.

“Did the Demon react to Dick?” And Damian realized Drake was asking _him_ not Grayson. Drake’s eyes were dark with intent. 

**Good time to lie about how I plan to take his elder brother as my consort, don’t you think?  
Oh yeah and, I’m baaaaack.**

“Of course he did.”

**Idiot.**

Drake tensed.

“What do you expect? He’s a monster and monsters apparently like Grayson, you would know,” Damian crossed his arms, “He said Grayson had a pretty mouth and moved on with his monologue about how Mother loved him best, right Grayson?”

**Oh, I see, he wouldn’t believe you if you said no. Clever, you’re smarter than I thought kid. I think we’ll get along well.**

“Um…right.”

“You shouldn’t leave out details Dick,” Drake snapped.

“It didn’t seem important?”

 

Lying about a piece of the Demon's purpose for now to Drake and Todd made sense. He still didn't trust them, but the Demon in his head wasn't going away.

... They needed to know.

“You’re right, we shouldn’t leave out the details I—”

**Tell them and I’ll pop out and snap Jason’s neck… or make love to Dick on the table…that could be fun too…no wait, inside out… no! Heart. I'll pull out his heart and give it to our Beloved, that one’s my favourite and it’s romantic at the same time.**

_You can’t. I control the body._

**I already did.**

_They... they probably have wards here."_

**Wanna bet? Bet his life?**

“…”

“Damian?” Grayson asked worriedly.

“It talks to me.” He shut his eyes, tensing, waiting for it to spring, but…

**Ooooh cold as ice.**

_You were bluffing!_

**Or maybe I’m lulling you into a false sense of security making you think you have total control. After all, how did I get out the first time?**

_Why would you tell me that if it were true? Wouldn’t the element of surprise be better?_

**I like you off balance. Drake’s yelling at you right now you know? It’s kind of annoying…**

“—TALKING TO IT RIGHT NOW?!?!”

“Tim! Calm down!” Grayson shouted. Drake backed off. 

“Damian?” Dick asked.

**He’s pretty when he’s worried…**

“It talks to me, but it can’t take control. It said it would if I told you about our conversations, but it hasn’t.” Damian felt smug. The other three were shades of uncertainty.

**He’s pretty when he’s uncertain…**

“You basically could have been letting it loose on us without warning?!” Drake exclaimed. Todd looked pissed off too. Grayson just looked concerned.

“What does it talk to you about?” He asked.

“It makes colourful observations about my life situations.”

**That’s one way to put it I suppose…**

“Don’t be glib Damian, this is serious.” 

**Hell, he’s pretty when he’s pissed off too!**

“You don’t have a demon in your head going on about the creepiest things Grayson! You don’t know how serious it really is!” Damian snapped, “I want it out.”

**No you don’t.**

“I want this body to be mine again!”

**You really do need to learn how to share.**

“So do something,” he said grabbing Grayson’s wrist looking at him with pleading eyes, “Please.”   
Grayson pulled him into a hug.

“We will Damian. We’ll fix this, I promise.”

**_Smells nice…_ **

“So what are we gonna do?” Todd asked no one in particular. 

Tim stood, “For now? Damian’s going to ignore the Demon in his head as best he can and all of us are going to get some sleep. I'm out of my element and I don't know any spells that might safely suppress the beast. Do you two?”

Grayson shook his head.

“You’re going to help them—er us?” Todd asked apparently deciding to throw his lot in with his brothers. Damian figured it had more to do with Talia’s part in all of this than any danger to Damian, but he was… thankful for it none the less.

“Yes, of course.” Drake said as if there were no question about it, “Get some sleep I haven’t touched any of your rooms, Alfred keeps them clean. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what to do. This house has the best wards in the country, even if the Demon could take control it wouldn’t be able to move an inch without freezing. Damian passes, for now.”

"Then why were you so mad?" Damian asked accusingly. Drake crossed his arms.

"Because you didn't know that. For all you knew it would tear out our throats before we could lift a hand in defense you little-"

“Thanks ever so much,” Damian said sarcastically, “What are we going to do tomorrow then?”

“Tomorrow? We go talk to Oracle.” 

-

Damian couldn’t sleep. The dream still echoed in his head. He ended up looking out the window watching the crooked cityscape that was Gotham city.

**Sweet dreams come to an end all too quickly.**

_Where did you go?_

**Yeah, I’m going to tell you my business. Good luck with that. Didn’t Drake say not to talk to me?**

_We both know where Drake can put his suggestions._

**I suppose…**

_What is it you want?_

**Right now? Dick in various positions on our bed screaming out in ecstasy.**  
Damian felt ill as the images spilled into his mind.

_No! Stop that! I mean other than Grayson! I Don’t want to see this!!!_

**Children.**

_You told Grayson you don’t want the world…_

**I don’t, not unless I really get bored. Some jackass hero always goes and spoils the fun anyway.**

_Then what do you want?_

**See figure 1 for more information.**

_He can’t be all you want! What if I say I’ll help you, I’ll help you accomplish your other goals if you leave him alone._

**See? You do care.**

...

**If you can’t tell your inner demon who can you tell?**

_Grayson is my friend, my only friend and I will not have you harm him with your debauchery, so if we cannot ally to that effect then we’ll go to war. I will do everything in my power to wipe you from this body, MY body._

**Fine, I won’t touch our Beloved, I’ll suffer without his favour if you give me control.**

_…what?_

**We’ll make a Devil’s Bargain. I can have control of the body as long as I do not touch Richard Grayson with intent to fuck. How’s that?**

_You will not touch Richard John Grayson at all, ever. Nor will you harm the adopted children of my father. If you do so much as kiss Grayson I gain back control._

**…**

_Well?!_

**I’m thinking…**

_This is a onetime deal you piece of—_

**Even Drake?**

_Even Drake!_

...

**…Ugh, fine, deal. Do you agree to the terms?**

_I agree._

**So do I. Move us out of the house and we can make it officially binding.**

Damian snapped out of his musings. He had been bargaining with the devil all night. The dawn slowly spread out over there city, the smog turning pink in reflection. Damian got dressed and slowly made his way down the hall. He paused at Dick’s room. 

**Our Beloved… it almost isn’t worth giving him up, is it?**

Damian tried to move away from the door. 

**Stop.**

_What?_

**We should say goodbye.**

_No, we shouldn’t._

**Hey, in a few minutes this’ll be my real-estate. You should start getting used to it. You know you want to see him one more time. Come on.**

Damian quietly entered the room. Like always Grayson immediately sprang up checking for attack. His face registered Damian’s and he fell back throwing the covers over his head. He mumbled something that was probably a greeting, and within a minute, was snoring again. Perfect trust. Even with a demon inside of him Grayson trusted him absolutely. 

_I can’t, this is too hard, this is just too hard._

Damian stared at the sleeping body.

_When did I grow to care for him so much? Is it really just because he attracts monsters to him?_

**That doesn’t affect you.**

_What?_

**He doesn’t affect you with that, you’re a human. Everything you feel, all that friendship and brotherhood and warm fuzzy stuff? That’s all you kiddo. That’s why I want him so badly, since we share a soul I feel what you feel and what you feel is the most glorious thing I’ve ever felt. No demon has ever even gotten close to that. Love, even a child’s love for his brother, is heady. It’s a cherry on top that he feels so good to be near, but even if he didn’t I would still desire him. It’s like I keep saying…**

_But I…_

**He is our Beloved.**

_But you…_

**Neither of us are willing to sacrifice him to get what we want, so we might as well go back to bed. He is off the table.**

_Is… is this your roundabout way of saying that all you want is…_

**I want him Damian. The world, your body, Drake’s eyes plucked out. It all comes after I get him, after _we_ get him.**

_Then it’s war._

**I’ll be ready.**

And then it went silent… completely silent. It was like the presence had completely left him. It wasn’t like before, after the dream when he just wasn’t speaking, this felt like… it felt like freedom, but…  
It wasn’t. He’s still here, he may have gone back to sleep, but he’s only biding his time, waiting, 

_But I’ll be ready you bastard, do you hear me?_

_I’ll be ready._

\------------------

**END PART ONE**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the end of part one. I've decided to make it a series. The next part is currently being written. There will be some shorts that I'll post for in between part one and two that concerns life before this story such as Dick and Jason's 'relationship,' Tim's search for Bruce, Damian's struggles getting used to his life with Dick and what exactly Alfred is doing (that's right Alfred gets a kickass adventure). 
> 
> Thank you all for reading and I hope you'll continue reading the next parts when they become available (which shouldn't be too long a wait).


End file.
